17 Major Hollywood Awards And Nominations That Were Revoked And Why

Plenty of talented performers have never been nominated for a major award like an Oscar or a Grammy. However, a few have achieved that career milestone, only to have that coveted award or nomination completely taken away.

Here are 17 times an award or nomination was revoked:

1.Milli Vanilli won the Best New Artist Grammy in 1990, but a few months later, the Recording Academy voted to rescind their award upon the discovery that members Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan weren't the ones singing on their releases — making them the first (and only) artists in history to have their Grammy taken away.

2.In 2010, "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus was initially nominated for a Grammy for Best Song Written for a Soundtrack. However, the Recording Academy disqualified it after discovering that songwriter Jessi Alexander didn't pen the song for Hannah Montana: The Movie but actually shopped it around to several country artists first.

It was replaced by "All Is Love" by Karen O and the Kids from the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack.

3.In 2021, similarities found between "Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift and "Deja Vu" by Olivia Rodrigo lead to Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Annie Clark (the "Cruel Summer" cowriters) being credited as songwriters on Olivia's track. They were also included on her Album of the Year Grammy nomination for Sour until the Recording Academy disqualified the writers of samples and removed their names.

4.In 2016, Jason Sudeikis's role in The Last Man on Earth earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. However, the Academy disqualified him because he appeared in 11 of 18 Season 2 episodes, exceeding the ruling that "only performers appearing in less than 50% of the eligible episodes are able to submit in the Guest Performer categories."

5.Also in 2016, Peter MacNicol was nominated for and disqualified from the same Emmy as Sudeikis for the same reasons. He appeared in five of 10 episodes on Veep Season 5, meaning he barely exceeded the cut-off for qualification.

His submission was an "honest mistake" because the Emmy submission paperwork was due before Veep wrapped up production for the season. Initially, he was only supposed to appear in four episodes, but he later appeared in 10 seconds of "documentary footage" toward the end of the season, making him ineligible.

6.For the 2017 Emmys, This Is Us was nominated for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes. However, the qualification threshold states that a minimum of 51% of the episode has to be set within the last 25 years. Since the episode that costume designer Hala Bahmet submitted was largely set in '70s flashbacks, the show was disqualified.

House of Cards took its place.

7.In 2016, Patrika Darbo won a Daytime Emmy for Guest Performer in a Digital Daytime Drama Series for her role on The Bay. However, it was revoked due to two errors the show's producers made in her submission — she'd previously appeared on the show (making her ineligible), and her reel contained material from multiple episodes (it's only supposed to contain material from one).

Afterwards, Darbo alleged that the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences knew about the violations two days before the ceremony but chose not to act and that similar violations were found on behalf of the Supporting Actor in a Digital Drama winner, but he was allowed to keep his award.

In a statement, she said, "The inequity in this year’s Daytime Emmys based on ageism, gender inequality, and perceived favoritism is, in my opinion, a big blow to the Emmy brand."

8.The 1994 program George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin earned three Emmy nominations and two wins for director George Stevens Jr. and one nomination and win for editor Catherine Shields. However, the Academy rescinded all of that in 2020 after becoming aware of D-Day to Berlin, a 1985 BBC documentary that shared production elements with the George Stevens version "without benefit of a domestic co-production," making it ineligible.

The original creators of D-Day to Berlin didn't know that Stevens had recut their work and added narration before releasing it as his own project until 2019. They subsequently filed complaints with the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

9.In 1995, Dennis Miller received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for The Dennis Miller Show. However, he was disqualified on the grounds that a host's individual performance can't be nominated if their name is in the title of the music or variety series.

He was replaced by Rosie O'Donnell and HBO Comedy Hour: Rosie O’Donnell. She was deemed eligible because the program she hosted was a special, not a series.

10.In 2000, Henry Winkler's role on The Practice earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. However, he was disqualified because his episode — which was originally slated to air in April — didn't air until June, missing the eligibility cutoff.

He was replaced by William H. Macy for his guest appearance on Sports Night.

11.At the very first Academy Awards in 1929, Charlie Chaplin earned four nominations for directing, producing, writing, and starring in The Circus. However, afraid he might win all of them, and therefore, take home a third of that night's awards, the Academy rescinded all of his nominations. They gave him one honorary award instead.

12.In 1972, The Godfather earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Dramatic Score. However, it was revoked upon the Academy's discovery that the love theme composer Nino Rota used was actually written for an Italian film from 1958.

It was replaced by John Addison’s Sleuth score.

13.In 2014, the song "Alone Yet Not Alone" from the movie of the same name received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. However, the Board of Governors voted to revoke the nomination after it came to light that composer Bruce Broughton — a former member of the board — had emailed members to promote his submission during the voting period.

14.Young Americans won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1969. However, the Academy revoked the award after finding out that the film had first been shown in October 1967, making it ineligible for the 1968-1969 awards season. It became the only movie in history to have its Oscar taken back.

15.In 2017, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing. When the Academy found out that sound engineer Greg P. Russell had called other Sound Branch members to lobby for his work during nominations, they removed his name from the ballot but let the other sound engineers from the film keep the nomination.

16.The 1992 Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee A Place in the World was produced in Argentina, but director Adolfo Aristarain got it submitted from the Cinematheque of Uruguay because he was dissatisfied that Argentina decided to go with a different movie. It was disqualified because there weren't enough Uruguayan people who worked on it to make it eligible as an Uruguayan submission.

It was not replaced in the nominations.

17.And finally, Vanessa Williams was crowned Miss America 1984, making her the first Black woman to win the title. However, when Penthouse magazine published nude pictures of her without her consent, she was forced to resign.

The Miss America organization finally gave her an official apology in 2015.